(AFP) – A New Yorker with a taste for superlatives and, like his boss, for flashing thumbs-ups to the cameras, US ambassador to Belgium Bill White lives and breathes Donald Trump’s MAGA-style brand of diplomacy. The 59-year-old envoy — who boasts a relationship with Trump reaching back three decades — sums up his mission in simple terms: “To get an A plus” from the president.
“President Trump, when I was talking to him about how much I loved him, I said, ‘I really want to make you happy,'” he told AFP in an interview in the Belgian capital. “He laughed, and he said, ‘Bring back $50 billion in deals,'” quipped White — a longtime entrepreneur with an easygoing banter who raised large sums for Trump in recent campaigns. The US president may be loathed, mocked, or feared by many in Europe — White says the job of representing him is “pretty easy”.
– ‘Truth Social’ on tap –
“I get my news source from him, not from — no offense — but not from you or anyone else,” White told AFP reporters at his official residence in Brussels. “I read his Truth Social. I know exactly what he’s thinking,” said White, who makes it his mission to relay Trump’s “message” to the diplomats, politicians, and business leaders he rubs shoulders with each day. Like many of the ambassadors drawn from Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, White has little of the career diplomat about him.
Before politics, he built an encyclopaedic career: he started out in real estate, ran a museum, raised funds for Barack Obama, and campaigned on the side for a wealthy Atlanta suburb to secede from the city. He was also a longtime Democrat, a married gay man and champion of liberal causes with extremely good connections — Aretha Franklin sang at his wedding. But the night of Trump’s 2016 election win, White decided to throw in his lot with the Republican billionaire, reportedly ditching Hillary Clinton’s deflated campaign event and crossing town to Trump’s.
Fast-forward to late 2025, and his arrival in Belgium as US ambassador. Barely had he unpacked than White was summoned to the foreign ministry for intervening in a case involving Jewish circumcisers in Antwerp — a probe he called “antisemitic.” He insists the row was not serious enough to dent his “amazing relationship” with Belgium — throwing in a mildly off-colour joke about circumcision to drive home the point. But it catapulted him onto the front pages in Belgium, a country of 12 million where the new ambassador has already become something of a household name. “That’s a little weird for me,” he admitted.
– ‘We love America!’ –
White likewise plays down the impact of forays into local politics by fellow US ambassadors that have ruffled feathers in France, Poland, and elsewhere. “This whole thing about we don’t love Europe, we were leaving NATO — it’s all baloney,” he said. “President Trump loves Belgium so much, and Europe too.” He sees claims of anti-American sentiment in Europe as greatly exaggerated — and has an anecdote to prove it. “We were on a boat going through Ghent last Saturday, and we’re going under the bridge, and these people are saying, ‘Ambassador White from America! We love America,'” he recalled — waving his arms to recreate the scene.
The US diplomat, whose residence is adorned with photos of his husband and of Trump and his wife Melania — “Isn’t she gorgeous?” — speaks of having close ties with the Belgian government. He says he speaks regularly with his “friends” the ministers of defence, interior and foreign affairs — and even claims to have won the good graces of the prime minister’s cat. According to White, Prime Minister Bart De Wever is tapped to give a speech at a US-style bash being staged in Brussels for the 250th anniversary of US independence — with fireworks, an American pop star and a fighter jet flyby.
It stands to be the “largest, biggest, best, most amazing, extraordinary, phenomenal, fantastic event outside of the president’s events in Washington,” he promised. Be it throwing a stars-and-stripes party or wading into local politics, White’s approach is unapologetically large and loud — with an energy lifted straight from Trump’s playbook. As European capitals voice growing frustration with the US leader — and after Hungarian voters ousted Viktor Orban despite vocal backing from Vice President JD Vance — does he see any reason to rethink his approach?
“No, not at all,” said White. “Not at all.”
– Camille CAMDESSUS
© 2024 AFP
